Unite the Right

Unite the Right was a white nationalist and far-right rally held in Charlottesville, Virginia from to 11 to 12 August 2017 to oppose the removal of the Robert E. Lee sculpture in the city. Around 500 protesters, including white supremacists, white nationalists, neo-Confederates, neo-Nazis, outlaw bikers, Trump supporters, and right-wing militiamen attended the rally, carrying swastikas, Confederate battle flags, anti-Semitic banners, Trump/Pence signs, and tiki torches. The protest was the largest hate-gathering of its kind in the United States in decades, and it received extensive media coverage. The rally was met by over one thousand counter-protesters, and the event turned violent as the two sides began to clash with shields, bats, and Mace pepper spray. Within an hour, the Virginia State Police declared the assembly to be unlawful; two hours later, fascist protester James Alex Fields Jr. killed one woman and injured 19 other counter-protesters in a vehicular ramming attack. The attack was denounced as domestic terrorism by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the rally and attack were condemned by many other prominent politicians, including Charlottesville mayor Michael Signer and Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe. Utah senator Orrin Hatch (R), whose brother had been killed in action while fighting for the US Air Force during World War II, stated that his brother did not give his life so that Nazism could be accepted back home in America; Colorado senator Cory Gardner (R) also asked for President Donald Trump to condemn the white supremacists. However, Trump instead placed the blame on "many sides", and he did not specifically condemn white nationalists and neo-Nazis until two days later. In a Twitter post, he said that the media had coerced him into making the statement and that the news media was never satisfied, and he later said that not all of the attendees were neo-Nazis and white nationalists. He also claimed that the tearing-down of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson statues would lead to the statues of presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson being taken down, claiming false equivalency between US presidents and rebel leaders. Trump was praised by alt-right leaders such as David Duke and Andrew Anglin, and Senators Gardner and Tim Scott criticized Trump for not speaking out against his white nationalist and fascist supporters. The rally left one counter-protester dead, 38+ people injured, and 5 arrested; two Virginia state policemen died in a helicopter crash while monitoring the protests.